Telecommunications services are an integral part of business and personal communications, allowing geographically remote parties to communicate irrespective of location. Because of the ease with which parties may contact each other, however, there may be occasions when communication can be viewed as an interruption rather than as a convenience. For example, unsolicited telephone calls from telemarketers often are perceived as intrusions not opportunities.
Increased competition has challenged telecommunications service providers to continuously offer new and improved services to customers. Some services have addressed the privacy concerns of customers. One example of such a service is caller identification (caller ID), which displays a telephone number and/or name associated with an incoming telephone call and provides the called party with the choice of receiving or ignoring the call. Another example is a call blocking service, which allows a subscriber to prevent telephone calls from anonymous parties and/or submit a list of telephone numbers to be blocked.
While certain advancements in technology have enabled telecommunications service providers to keep pace with the increasing demands of customers, telemarketers also have expanded their tactics. In particular, telemarketers recently have begun transmitting unsolicited fax message to homes and businesses. This practice can be especially frustrating for recipients due to the congestion of fax lines and the unwanted consumption of printing resources.
Providing new features and servers has long been a growing market for telecommunications providers. It would be advantageous for telecommunications providers and telecommunications customers alike to enable a service for preventing the receipt of unwanted fax messages. Accordingly, there exists a need for systems and techniques of call screening for fax telephone numbers.